Wednesday, October 22, 2008

No DeFEET For Us

Today was a loooooooong but really productive day. It started early this morning with a follow up appointment for Stephanie's ears. They are much better and now we await the time for her to have surgery. Then we ran a few exhausting errands and returned back to the hospital for a long awaited appointment for Jude. Jude was born with six toes, an extra big toe, on each foot. Poor guy is SO self conscious of it. Within just a few days of coming home to America he was asking us when he could see a doctor for his feet. Stephanie and Jude both also told us a story about Jude taking a knife and trying to cut off one of his big toes when he was little. Oh, how that makes me cringe! So today was the big day he was going to finally see a specialist about his feet.

It did not start off so good. We checked in early and then waited and waited. After a really long time I went back to the receptionist to ask what was going on. I later learned that she forgot to inform them that we were there. Ugh. When they finally called us back they said they needed X-rays before the doctor could see him so we were taken to another waiting room for an equally long wait. Ugh. Once the X-rays were finally in hand (hours later) we were granted the honor of seeing the doctor. Within seconds of entering the room the Dr. informed me that there had been a mistake and he did not do pediatrics. Not only could he not help us but the nearest orthopedic pediatric surgeon was not near at all. Ugh. Then the Dr. made a big error~ He took one look at our adorable Jude and seemed to just melt. ;) He agreed to go ahead and take a look. Great news! He said that Jude's feet would be very simple surgeries to repair. Hooray! He also showed us the X-rays of Jude's toes and pointed out that his extra big toes had actually started growing a new toe INSIDE of the toes. Crazy, right? So he does not have 12 toes but 14! What a lucky kid. Finally this very kind doctor decided to make an exception and do the surgery instead of sending Jude to someone else. So he says that the bad news is that he is booked solid for the next several months. Ugh. When I told him we probably wouldn't be here in a few months he sweetly bent over backwards to figure out how to help us. To sum up this very long story.... Jude will be having corrective surgery on both feet NEXT WED!!! Oh we whooped and hollered with excitement.

Because that appointment took so much longer then we expected I had to rush to our next errand which was to go to try and get social security cards for our new little Americans. I had heard some pretty bad stories from other adoptive families about the months of struggles when they tried to get their cards so I was braced for a battle. We walked in and a half hour later walked out with the promise of cards in the mail within the next 2 weeks. Easy breezy!

Then we rushed home to eat, and rushed out again to go to church. A smarter person then I would realize that was probably a full enough day, but not I. After church I dropped Jim off at home to get some sleep and then surprised the kids with a late night trip to In & Out. They were so thrilled. There is a funny story to the trip to In & Out but I'll share that tomorrow. Now, to go fall into bed but praising God big time for the way that everything fell into place just beautifully today!

6 comments:

Ericka said...

Oh why did you mention in and out??? U-G-H.
Praising God for Jude's surgery.
Will be covering him in prayer next Wed!

Amanda said...

WOW that is a big day! How exciting for Jude! I hope the healing process isn't toooo terribly long for him. He's SO cute! Love that grin.

What is In and Out?

:~)

Kathy Cassel said...

My little Jasmine has five toes on her left foot but the big toe is alone and the others are connected in pairs of two and can't be separated or she'll loose her balance. The right foot is a mess. She has a big toe and two little toes which are hooked together and were on the side of her foot. There was a bone cross ways between the big toes and the two little ones. They took that bone out and moved the two little ones in a bit. That took some fighting because most of the doctors just wanted to cut them off!! When they removed the cross ways bone, it turns out that it was holding the big toe in place and now it's laying across the top of the foot. Nothing more can be done for her feet though. People stare like crazy because she's barefoot for gymnastics and changes shoes at dance. I remind her that she can do more with the feet she has--soccer, gymnastics, dance--than most people can do with normal feet!!

We had the problem of no one wanting to do her feet--they weren't pediatric doctors or they just didn't think it was worth it. I'm glad you found a doctor who can do the surgery. I hope it all goes well. Did he say if it would change his balance at all or not?

Amanda said...

Oh and what's up with Stephanie's ears?

Anonymous said...

What a day! Did you take all your kids w/ you (to the appointments)???

How interesting that Jude has all those extra toes. You must have a very special boy :-)

Linda

Life in Fitzville said...

What a cool story! I have had a few doctors make the same "error" with my son... it's amazing how such cuteness can get such great service.

It feels good knowing how much these doctors like to do something they know will make 'them' feel good as much as their patient.